Investment of $76.8bn on top ten offshore gas projects to add over 18.1bn cubic feet per day by 2025

Over $200bn in capital expenditure will be spent over the lifetime of the top 10 offshore gas projects to produce 327 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas, according to research and consulting by GlobalData. These 10 projects, selected from 157 upcoming offshore projects globally, will contribute incremental capacity of 18,052 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) to global gas supply by 2025. Barzan, a planned shallow water field in Qatar, is the largest with anticipated peak production at 5,580mmcfd in 2030 at an estimated cost of $17bn.

GlobalData reports the average development breakeven gas price for top upcoming offshore gas projects at $3 per thousand cubic feet (mcf), with projects in offshore Iran and Qatar having the lowest breakeven price at $1 per mcf and projects in offshore Mozambique – the highest at $6 per mcf. The company notes that two of the top ten global offshore projects do not meet the return threshold of 10% for internal rate of return, necessitating reductions in capital expenditure or better gas markets. Shallow water South Pars Phase 13 in Iran has the highest net present value per barrel of oil equivalent at $4.5.

GlobalData estimates $200bn will be spent to bring the top ten offshore gas projects online, with $76.8bn forecast by 2025. Early-stage ultra-deepwater projects, Prosperidade and Mamba Complex, in Mozambique lead capital investment with $37.5bn each over their development lifetime, followed by shallow water Sakhalin 3 (Kirinskoye South (Yuzhno-Kirinskoye)) in Russia with $30.3bn. Differentiating for water depth, GlobalData expects full-cycle capital expenditure per barrel of oil equivalent to average $2.8 for shallow water, $6.5 for ultra-deepwater, and $7.5 for deepwater.